With a population of 65,000 residents and an additional 30,000 UCD students, Davis still pulls off a seeming small town atmosphere. The Davis theme song should come straight from "Cheers" - our favorite 80's sitcom. It's all so familiar and it just feels like home. Living in a predominately conservative population (myself included) I often tend to forget about my good time granola roots. Davis is a university-oriented city with a progressive, vigorous community noted for its small-town style, energy conservation, environmental programs, social innovation, parks, preservation of trees, red double-decker London buses, bicycles, and the quality of its educational institutions. Davis residents boast the highest level of education in the state of California with more than 80% of Davis' adult population completing a minimum of one year of college training and more than 60% having attained at least a four-year college degree. And let's just say that when all my friend's parents asked where I was going to college, a state university was anything but impressive or worthy of conversation. But I bet I had a whole hell of a lot more fun than they did! ha ha. I find all this recent emphasis of "going green" funny because, Davis went green long before I was born. In fact, I even remember as a kid people watching us in disgust as we'd pack our car with paper/plastic grocery bags w
hen they'd walk away hauling their canvas totes, though I really didn't get it at the time. Unique to it's own, Davis features more than 50 miles of bicycle paths and more bicycles per capita than any other city in the nation. It's a Northern California Mecca for artists of many media, featuring dozens of public and private galleries all within a few blocks of this quaint and homey town. No matter what direction you turn, the stroke of a local artist is evident. Truly a rarity, Davis is just Davis and there is nowhere else like it. I have received a few of these email forwards in the last year and I thought it would be fun to share. It's just a good summation of those crazy Davis idiosyncrasies… 
and a place I'm proud to call my hometown
…your family owns more bicycles than there are people in your family.
...the highest crime rate is bike theft
...you have a whole section of town devoted to Lord of the Rings...you don't find it odd that we have a whole section of town devoted to Lord of the Rings
...the highest crime rate is bike theft
...you have a whole section of town devoted to Lord of the Rings...you don't find it odd that we have a whole section of town devoted to Lord of the Rings
...THE place to hang out, is Borders
...you find nothing odd that there's a whole grocery store that caters to vegetarians and vegans.
...you see a vegetarian homeless person
...you see a BUSH04 sticker and realize there are other political parties.
...your neighbor's house sold for a million dollars when, in any other town, it'd be worth four hundred thousand.
...your water is heated by solar panels.
...you have picnic in the park and Dinner at the Dump.
...you know of people getting a noise violation for snoring
...you know 5 different routes to the same location because all the roads in Davis are connected
... a city ordinance was passed to dim the streetlights so that you could see the stars better at night.
...all directions anywhere start with "you know where Baskin Robbins is?"
...we have 2 holidays over spring break: Easter, and Picnic Day
...you always buy Mother's Day gifts at the Whole Earth Festival.
...in high school you bought your clothes at the Salvation Army and were cool for it
...you see a vegetarian homeless person
...you see a BUSH04 sticker and realize there are other political parties.
...your neighbor's house sold for a million dollars when, in any other town, it'd be worth four hundred thousand.
...your water is heated by solar panels.
...you have picnic in the park and Dinner at the Dump.
...you know of people getting a noise violation for snoring
...you know 5 different routes to the same location because all the roads in Davis are connected
... a city ordinance was passed to dim the streetlights so that you could see the stars better at night.
...all directions anywhere start with "you know where Baskin Robbins is?"
...we have 2 holidays over spring break: Easter, and Picnic Day
...you always buy Mother's Day gifts at the Whole Earth Festival.
...in high school you bought your clothes at the Salvation Army and were cool for it
...and you were even cooler if you bought them on Telegraph Street in Berkeley (consignment shops of course)
...you get pissed off in a line of 3 cars.
...Gay Pride Day gets proclamations from the City Council and County Board of Supervisors and a straight city council member shows up in drag.
...anything, and everything you say, can be twisted into something community leaders will consider to be offensive to any group imaginable in the entire human gene pool, including but not limited to one-armed bald eastern European midgets who talk with lisps. The city council would then instill courses into the curriculum to raise awareness that such groups even exist, and remove anything valuable from the curriculum to make place for the new courses.
...you get pissed off in a line of 3 cars.
...Gay Pride Day gets proclamations from the City Council and County Board of Supervisors and a straight city council member shows up in drag.
...anything, and everything you say, can be twisted into something community leaders will consider to be offensive to any group imaginable in the entire human gene pool, including but not limited to one-armed bald eastern European midgets who talk with lisps. The city council would then instill courses into the curriculum to raise awareness that such groups even exist, and remove anything valuable from the curriculum to make place for the new courses.
...you didn't bat an eye when the Holmes Jr. High mascot was changed from "minutemen" to "minutemen & minutewomen" - much more p.c. of course
...any kind of a controversial issue instantaneously spawns town-wide panic, protests, marches, emergency city council meetings, candle light vigils, TV news stories, apocalyptic hysteria and other bullshit, all to establish some moronic politically correct status quo for something that never was a real issue in the first place
...nobody thinks its strange that a 60,000 population town is a "nuclear free zone."
...a corporate record business (Tower) goes out of business before a private business (Armadillo).
...the city council votes in favor of and builds a tunnel for toads.
...the postmaster's father builds a town for and writes a book about the tunnel for toads.
...you get really nervous when someone goes to put a plastic/aluminum bottle in the trash can.
...everyone you know got their braces from Dr. Chin
...Wednesday night means Farmers Market
...the police let the homeless guy keep a garden down by the railroad tracks.
...You don't know how to get to your friend's house by car because you have only ever gone by bike
...you call it Murder Burger [note: The name was changed to Redrum Burger because some folks thought that "Murder Burger" seemed too violent -- yes we have city council debates about such things!]
...you understand the archaeological significance of potholes
......you see nothing unusual about a Nutcracker whose cast of characters includes teddy bears, gnomes, country line dancers, swing dancers, bugs, bees, and insects.
...You met a Republican once. It happened in Sacramento. You screamed and ran away
...any kind of a controversial issue instantaneously spawns town-wide panic, protests, marches, emergency city council meetings, candle light vigils, TV news stories, apocalyptic hysteria and other bullshit, all to establish some moronic politically correct status quo for something that never was a real issue in the first place
...nobody thinks its strange that a 60,000 population town is a "nuclear free zone."
...a corporate record business (Tower) goes out of business before a private business (Armadillo).
...the city council votes in favor of and builds a tunnel for toads.
...the postmaster's father builds a town for and writes a book about the tunnel for toads.
...you get really nervous when someone goes to put a plastic/aluminum bottle in the trash can.
...everyone you know got their braces from Dr. Chin
...Wednesday night means Farmers Market
...the police let the homeless guy keep a garden down by the railroad tracks.
...You don't know how to get to your friend's house by car because you have only ever gone by bike
...you call it Murder Burger [note: The name was changed to Redrum Burger because some folks thought that "Murder Burger" seemed too violent -- yes we have city council debates about such things!]
...you understand the archaeological significance of potholes
......you see nothing unusual about a Nutcracker whose cast of characters includes teddy bears, gnomes, country line dancers, swing dancers, bugs, bees, and insects.
...You met a Republican once. It happened in Sacramento. You screamed and ran away
....You think you're better than people from Woodland
....You have at least one friend with dreadlocks
....You have been pulled over by a police officer... while riding your bike
....It has a population of over 60,000, but you still consider Davis a small town
....You say you're from Sacramento because no one outside of Northern California has heard of Davis. Then you correct yourself, because you can't stand the thought of people thinking you're from Sacramento
....You will forever be part of the 'bubble' no matter where you end up.
2 comments:
Long live the bubble! We should add, you know you're from Davis when someone at your high school rips the "Rush" sticker off of your bumper! Hee,hee
I had no idea Davis was that small. It was really fun to learn about it, it makes me want to go there.
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